Advice on upgrading camera Vs glass.

Hi all,

I could do with some advice. I've got an oooooold camera and £200 to spare. I'm not sure whether it would be more worthwhile to upgrade the camera, or stick with what I have and get a new lens.

Here's what I have so far:
Olympus PEN E-P1
14-42 kit lens
Oly 40-150mm
Oly 17mm f/2.8
30 year old Oly nifty fifty
Cheap tripod
Yongnuo flash

I guess my options are swap the E-P1 for maybe an EPL-5, or keep the camera and grab either a) a fisheye bodycap lens and a nice tripod or b) some other lens - but what's recommended? 25mm, 45mm, f/8?

Cheers!

The EPL-5 is an excellent camera. It is a magnitude better than the EPL-1, which I loved. If possible, acquire either a VF-2 or VF-4 EVF. That will greatly enhance your EPL experience.

Well I think the first thing you need to do is identify where your current set up is letting you down ... what can't you do that you want to do?

Definitely time to upgrade the body.

Fast glass and a better sensor are always good. In the OP's case, a newer body will also make his lenses much faster amd provide with features that were unknown to him/her.

A camera with a tilt screen was a new way to shoot for me. I found it easier to get really low to the ground. easier to hold the camera above my head.

With touch screen to set the focus box, I didn't have to focus/re-compose. I found touching the screen to trip the shutter also fun.

First, figure out what sort of images you enjoy taking. Then you can decide what to upgrade. Your body is a bit out of date so that would be a good place to start. There are a lot of fine M4/3 lenses available if you can decide what range you are interested in. Happy hunting.

lensfungus said:

Hi all,

I could do with some advice. I've got an oooooold camera and £200 to spare. I'm not sure whether it would be more worthwhile to upgrade the camera, or stick with what I have and get a new lens.

Here's what I have so far:
Olympus PEN E-P1
14-42 kit lens
Oly 40-150mm
Oly 17mm f/2.8
30 year old Oly nifty fifty
Cheap tripod
Yongnuo flash

I guess my options are swap the E-P1 for maybe an EPL-5, or keep the camera and grab either a) a fisheye bodycap lens and a nice tripod or b) some other lens - but what's recommended? 25mm, 45mm, f/8?

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Good glass always zaps a camera upgrade in my opinion and when you do upgrade and stick with the same mount system the glass keeps going on.

I think it a fallacy to think that by buying an updated body it will make the lenses work better. Obviously a new body might have a better senosr but once upon a time that old camera body was raved about and sample images passed about by would-be owners desperate to part with their money. The E-P1 seems to be suiting you well and there seems no urgency to replace it.

I wonder why a body cap lens might be on your purchase horizon? - this might be more of a clue to what type of images lights your fire than the stock standard reflex responses to buy an updated camera body.

It seems that you are more willing to be experimental in your work and those that buy the best of everything and the latest and greatest are surely only interested in trying to achieve the absolute standard of perfection - something that forever seems elusive and can be perhaps become closer by the application of money to purchase even more gear. At some point the law of diminishing returns kicks in and I really think it kicked quite strongly a while ago.

But reality works a little slower.

Thanks all, for the advice.

Tom, you're definitely right about diminishing returns, and that's really why I was using such an old body, but it really did struggle in low-light and I felt it was holding me back in that respect.

In the end, I managed to find a used E-PL5 for £140 as it had a 'scratch' on the screen (which was outside of where the image appears and wasn't visible when the screen was powered up). So I'm keeping the E-P1 as a spare/girlfriend/time-lapse camera.

Blown away with the E-PL5 so far. All smiles and think I made the right decision

Cheers all!

lensfungus said:

Blown away with the E-PL5 so far. All smiles and think I made the right decision

Cheers all!

Click to expand...

Maybe some useful stuff on my pages, start here for E-PL5 http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/50-epl5-comments.html

Other more general stuff from the head page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/01-epl1-menu.html

I certainly enjoy my E-PL5, but when a really cheap E-P5 deal surfaced I also went to that, the E-PL5 is now my backup. I happily use either.

Regards...... Guy